One of my favorite artists is Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), a dutch painter prominent in De Stijl style. I'm a sucker for modern art, thus i do love me some Mondrian--dare i say he is probably my favorite.

Most people know Mondrian from his very angular, "basic" paintings consisting of black lines and colored squares. for example his, "Composition with Blue, Yellow, Black, and Red" from 1922:

most of his later work was in this style. sometimes he would rotate the canvas so it was a diamond shape, or add more colors, less colors, more lines, etc. He was always experimenting with the ideas of angles and colors--taken to the "extremem" with his "Broadway Boogie Woogie" from 1942-43:

Now, i'm presonally not all that fond of "Broadway Boogie Woogie", it is too busy and too yellow for my taste.

what i love most from Mondrian is his transition period from traditional Dutch landscapes to his mature style. Here is his "Mill in Sunlight" from 1908:

Most of this work occurred between 1910 and 1920. I was lucky enough to see a special exhibit at Paris's Musee d'Orsay that featured nothing but his transition work.

In this work you can see him started to experiment with a limited pallet and more angular lines, even though he continued to paint "real" objects (not his mature work of just lines and color boxes).

my absolute favorite is his "Gray Tree" from 1911:

it is an amazing journey to see Mondrian make. and to me, the journey period is much more fasonating and resonate than either the starting place and destination.

ddv